With his self-titled debut solo album out earlier this year and a run of UK shows imminent, the former Kyuss man has been wringing his hands over picking 13 all-time favourite LPs. Mark Eglinton helps him boil it down

The Cult - LoveThis record changed my life, literally. I was in my freshman photography class and this guy called Greg Grenville says to me: "You wanna trip out on something? Listen to this song…" and he played me 'She Sells Sanctuary'. Up until that moment, I had been searching my entire life for something to call my own. Something that I could really relate to and I came close with a lot of bands. Now the search was over. It went from me planning to go into the military after high school to study veterinary medicine, to me wanting to sing in a band. I stopped cutting my hair and nothing was going to stop me. I fell in love. I got turned on by it. Not in a sexual way where I sat in the bathroom, but it definitely enlivened me. It was pure. The feeling I felt only comes up a few times in a lifetime - like when my daughter and son were born… pure. I felt it when my father died too… pure. These were emotions I'd never, ever experienced before and they exploded in my heart, in my gut and in my head. Nothing else mattered to me: I wanted to be Ian Astbury and I still do sing like him. My phrasing, my timing, my delivery… all Ian Astbury.

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